What do these three things have in common?
Not much at all for but two thirds of them, but I've been dealing with a pretty irritating cough for a few days now, and I'd planned to write a story about a habanero pepper I recently chopped up, so I figured I'd get to all three of these at once. Plus, if you have a cough: best avoid caseins!
Casein is a protein found in all strains of everyday mammalian milk.
Capsaicin is the oil you can find in certain spicy things, like chili peppers.
Capsaicins are notoriously hard to get rid off, and actually cannot be washed off with water, as I was made aware a while back, when I bought a couple fresh habanero peppers.
They had them on discount price, and I like a little spice, and thought it'd be nice with some of that fresh stuff instead of the typical dried.
So I bought some, brought 'em home, and prepared 'em.
I removed the seeds (with my fingers), chopped 'em up (holding said peppers with my fingers as I did), stuffed 'em in a couple of small jars (still with my fingers), and then - peppers in freezer, and hygiene in handling food thus less important, carelessly stifled a sneeze - with my fingers.
Oh boy.
There's a certain delay in the onset of the pain you feel when capsaicin comes into contact with some of the less ideal membranes of the human body, like the inside of a nose.
As I felt the heat building I realized my mistake, and went to the bathroom to wash away said capsaicin oil (I did not yet know it was in fact called capsaicin oil), with water and soap, and I don't know if some types of soap work better than others, but this type of soap did not!
What I managed to do with said water and soap was more so to further spread the oil, and thus the pain, rather than rinse it away.
It's apparently so that water not only has no effect on capsaicin, but actually amplifies the painful sensation you get from it.
So I Googled. I learned that alkaline things (like for example vinegar, lemon and bicarbonate) can reduce the potency of said capsaicin, as well as regular dairy, due to the casein proteins in the milk! I poured up a glass of milk, and dipped my nose in it, and it was notably better.
I washed my hands with bicarbonate, too, but that seemed less efficient. Lemon was alright, but the skin under my fingernails burned for pretty much the rest of the day regardless... the nose pain on the other hand subsided entirely within an hour or so.
Turns out hand-sanitizer (and other forms of alcohol) may have a similarly helpful effect, which is odd considering they're more acidic than they are alkaline. Maybe it actually removes the capsaicin, rather than neutralize it?
I'll try that next time.
That and regular oil. Oil dilutes oil, and oils are generally soothing.
Though it's strange I actually did not feel the burn on my hands as much, despite generous capsaicin distribution there.
Also interesting: Though you may perceive a burning sensation from capsaicin, it actually does not burn the skin at all. On the contrary, it's pretty good at increasing blood circulation. It helps. It heals.
Maybe that's why you can potentially kickstart a heart with a large dose of cayenne pepper in case of a heart attack - alternative emergency remedy if you're ever in such a situation and there's no other assistance nearby. Not recommended in lack of an attack though! You can buy concentrated cayenne oil, for example, to ingest a high dose easily.
The cough? It's troublesome. Every hour or so I get up and cough up some phlegm, my nose is still running, and yet I have a trip to and hotel booked in Halmstad this weekend. The train ride's 4-5 hours...
Really hope I can get rid of this before then.
One day to go.
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